The Rouhani Government has held its line against MPs demanding a vote on the July 14 nuclear deal between Iran and the 5+1 Powers.

On Sunday, more than 200 of Iran�s 290 MPs signed a statement insisting that the Majlis confirm the agreement. The Government has maintained that endorsement is in the hands of the Supreme National Security Council.

On Tuesday, President Rouhani�s senior adviser, Mohammad-Baqer Nobakht, told a press conference, �According to the law, this agreement should not be sent to Parliament�.[This] does not require the approval of any institution other than the Supreme National Security Council.�

Nobakht said that �Iran had the upper hand� in the nuclear negotiations, and he emphasized that the Government would not allow the US to exploit the agreement to stir unrest in Iran.

The Supreme Leader had warned in a speech on Monday that �the opposite side in the nuclear negotiations was seeking to clinch an agreement�to find a way to infiltrate the Islamic Republic�.

See Iran Daily, August 18: Concerned About Region, Supreme Leader Is Cautious on Nuclear Deal

Ali Akbar Salehi, Iran�s lead technical negotiator, echoed that the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action �is not a treaty or convention that should go to Parliament�, while saying the deal was proof of the success of the principle of the Supreme Leader�s �guardianship� and Iran�s �model of resistance�.

He added, �The implementation time depends on Iranian actions�.The faster we fulfill our obligations, the faster sanctions will be cancelled.�
Rafsanjani Launches New Challenge Within Regime


Former President Hashemi Rafsanjani has launched a new challenge within the regime, implicitly responding to the Supreme Leader as well as to his critics.

Using a meeting with former prisoners in the 1980s Iran-Iraq War, Rafsanjani hailed Iran�s ability to deal with issues in the Middle East and Central Asia in a �peaceful manner�.

The statement continued the promotion of the Rouhani Government�s strategy of �engagement�, despite the latest speech by the Supreme Leader portraying confrontation over the situations in countries such as Iraq, Syria, and Yemen.

See Iran Daily, August 18: Concerned About Region, Supreme Leader Is Cautious on Nuclear Deal

Rafsanjani has favored contacts with Saudi Arabia in an attempt to defuse some of the conflicts. His intervention comes amid a Russian-Iranian effort to get the Saudis to meet with Syria�s embattled Assad regime.

The former President also aimed at those who are trying to block his candidacy in next February�s election to lead the Assembly of Experts, which selects the Supreme Leader: �Even though the political and economic condition of the country is improving, some ignorant and idiots wants to have conflicts inside Iran.�

Last Friday, Ayatollah Jannati, the head of the Guardian Council, used the Tehran Prayer to declare, �Some people want to force themselves into the Assembly of Experts and deviate this assembly from its correct path�.We should stand against them�.The same people pressured Judiciary to stop some legal verdicts.�

Jannati then thanked the judiciary for the 10-year sentence on Rafsanjani�s son Mehdi Hashemi, who entered prison earlier this month over the fraud charges.

Rafsanjani closed his statement with a challenge to those, including opponents of the July 14 nuclear deal, who said sanctions had had no effect on Iran and upheld the Supreme Leader�s concept of a �Resistance Economy�: �Some people mistakenly said that these sanctions made us pursue a policy of resistance. However, making our country poorer is not resistance.�

By EA WorldView